A witty and subversive take on the video chat room, Dogs’ Ears — commissioned by the ICA (UK) — explores the beauty and language of the dog ear and the future of arts patronage in the digital era. Presented as a video chat website, visitors can log-in and browse dogs for free. But if users want to ‘chat’ with a dog, then they will need to make a small donation - either to the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People - or direct to the artist to fund the next stage of the project, when Freeman will write software that analyses the ear movements to produce a sonic piece.

Julie Freeman’s work spans visual, audio and digital artforms and explores the relationship between science, nature and how humans interact with it. For the past 12 years her work has focused on using electronic technologies to ‘translate nature’ whether it’s the sound of torrential rain dripping on a giant rhubarb leaf; a pair of concrete speakers that lurk in galleries haranguing passersby with fractured sonic samples; or by providing an interactive platform to chat with dogs in numerous international languages. She is currently Artist in Residence at the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Centre at Cranfield University. For more about the artist see www.juliefreeman.co.uk or click through to see the micro-site for The Lake - which was awarded £96,000 for development by NESTA, where Freeman electronically tagged various freshwater fish species to create animation and soundtrack.